


PUBLIC SPIRIT 




ORATION 



DELrSTERBD BEFOEE THE 



Gin Council and Citizens of Boston, 



ONE HUNDKED AND EOURTEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 

JULY 4, 1890, 



HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURY. 






BOSTON: 
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 

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PUBLIC SPIRIT. 



ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



City Council and Citizens of Boston, 



ONE HUNDRED AND FOUETEENTH ANNIVERSARY OF 
THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE, 



JULY 4, 1890, 



HON. ALBERT E. PILLSBURY. 




BOSTON: 
PRINTED BY ORDER OF THE CITY COUNCIL. 

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CITY OF BOSTON 



In Board or Al,dermen, July 7, 1890. 

Resolved, That the thanks of the City Council be hereby 
expressed to Hon. Albert E. Pillsbury for the patriotic 
and eloquent Oration delivered by him before the city 
authorities on the Fourth of July, in commemoration of 
the One Hundred and Fourteenth Anniversary of American 
Independence, and that he be requested to furnish a copy 
thereof for publication. 

Passed unanimously. Sent down for concurrence. 
William Power Wilson, 

Ghairnian. 



In Common Council, July 10, 1890. 

Concurred unanimously. 

Horace G. Allen, 

President. 

Approved July 12, 1890. 

Thomas N. Hart, 

Mayor. 
A true copy. 

Attest : 

Edwin U. Curtis, 

City Clerk. 



ORATION. 



Mr. Mayor, Fellow-citizens : — 

We meet to-day on the common ground of 
American citizenship. In the celebration of the 
national anniversary we forget all sectional divi- 
sions, all diversities of political opinion, all preju- 
dices of race or creed. We remember only our 
common sympathies and interests in the present, 
our common hopes and desires for the future. It 
is no time for the expression of narrow views, 
cynical criticism, or gloomy prognostications. It 
is, and it ought to be, a day of thanksgiving and 
mutual congratulation, and none the less a day for 
the wise and patriotic counsel which will reanimate 
the sense of public duty, rekindle the national 
spirit, and renew our fidelity to the interests of 
our common country. 

In the multitude of associations which crowd 
upon us we think first of the great men of the 
Revolution. Their deeds and their memory are the 
common theme of this celebration. It would be a 



6 • ORATION. 

grateful task to pay again the pious tribute to 
the fathers, but we shall not fail in reverence to 
them if we turn from the paths of patriotic 
reminiscence to the stonier, but perhaps no less 
fruitful, ground of inquiry and practical sugges- 
tion. The day belongs to the future no less than 
to the past. Coming to this task with little oppor- 
tunity for preparation, I cannot attempt to enter- 
tain you with the fruits of research, much less 
with the graces of oratory. My contribution to 
these exercises must be of another character, 
though, I trust, not wholly inappropriate to the 
occasion. 

We are reminded by recent public utterances 
that some of our fellow-citizens, of eminent virtues 
and not wanting in patriotism, seem to find our 
times hopelessly out of joint. They read in every 
passing event the signs of apprehension for the 
future. If they are right, this celebration is an 
empty form. "I have not the slightest interest in 
any holiday," said Emerson, " except as it cele- 
brates real, and not pretended, joys." This is a 
just and wholesome sentiment. We ought to share 
it; and if we share it we ought to look about us 
and consider our situation. And if we find in the 
survey of our affairs, that which will inspire us 
with renewed courage, strengthen our faith, re- 



JULY 4, 1890. 7 

Idndle our patriotism, and carry hope and confi- 
dence even to doubting hearts, we shall celebrate 
this day to some purpose. 

We need not fear to make the trial. I believe 
that we may look at the present and the future 
with tranquil eyes. Our government is not going 
to destruction; our institutions are not falling into 
decay. There are some evils which afiect all 
society and all government, and from these we 
cannot hope to be exempt. There are some which 
inevitably attend our growth in wealth and num- 
bers, which call for attention and remedy. But we 
may compare our condition to-day with that of any 
other nation; we may compare it with our own 
condition at any former period of our history, and 
we shall find the comparison favorable. Fortune 
has lavished all her gifts upon us. Ever3rthing 
which material abundance can contribute to human 
comfort and happiness is ours. We have outrun 
all the richest nations on the earth in the race of 
prosperity. We have developed a capacity which 
seems illimitable to absorb the surplus populations 
of the four quarters of the earth, without any 
visible check to progress or serious disturbance 
of social order. We are at peace with all the 
world, and so we are likely to remain; and, with 
prudence and wisdom in the use of their splendid 



8 ORATION. 

opportunities, no people under this day's sun has 
more to rejoice in, less to fear, or more to hope 
for, than the American people. 

Our safeguard and defence is in the awakening 
of Public Spirit, and the sense of public duty. 
This is the paramount need of our times. Pub- 
lic spirit was the virtue which distinguished 
the fathers of the Revolution. The Declaration 
of Independence was the fruit of it. The resist- 
ance of the colonists against the invasion of their 
chartered rights, which led up to the Declaration, 
the war, and the conquest of independence which 
followed and vindicated it, the establishment of 
the United States under the constitution, all the 
great and memorable events which culminated in 
the American republic, were born of the generous 
and patriotic impulse which moves noble minds to 
sacrifice private interest to the public good. This 
is Public Spirit. It is the sense of duty applied to 
public affairs. It was this, which, under Omnipo- 
tence, created our government, and this is the force 
which must maintain it. It is the only sure 
defence against popular apathy, and the indiffer- 
ence of the people to their public interests. To 
arouse it and keep it alive is the first duty of 
prudence and patriotism, and on this, in spite of all 
evil forebodings, we may depend to carry us safely 



JULY 4, 1890. 9 

among the rocks and shoals which lie in the course 
of popular government. 

The need and the duty of public spirit is a sub- 
ject of increasing attention. It is the frequent 
theme of orators and scholars, and of the public 
press. We are often reminded of the growing 
indifference of the people to their public affairs. 
It is said that public virtue is deteriorating ; 
that politics are becoming mean and mercenary ; 
that public men are not up to former standards 
of character and capacity ; that public oJffice is 
more and more sought from unworthy motives, 
and for selfish ends ; that party spirit and party 
discipline are too potent in the conduct of the 
government ; that our legislation is on a lower 
level, and that the general tone of public affairs 
is declining. These complaints are not without 
foundation, but they are in part the result 
of illusion. They are by no means new or 
peculiar to our own day. There never was a 
time when we were not threatened with some 
real or fancied danger. There never was a time 
when some prophet of evil did not foretell the 
overthrow of our government. We have always 
been confronted with the ancient doctrine that 
democracy only lays a surer foundation for des- 
potism. But we have safely weathered all the 



10 ORATION. 

storms which have broken uj^on us, and even the 
earthquake-shock of civil war only settled the 
government more firmly upon its foundations. 

If public spirit is declining, the decline must 
be stayed ; if it sleeps, it must be awakened. 
We need not lose confidence; we must not omit 
caution, nor forget the maxim, which contains the 
essence of all political wisdom as applied to popu- 
lar government, that the price of liberty is eternal 
vigilance. We have fairly entered upon a period 
which, to the republics of ancient times, has proved 
to be the period of decline, — a period in which 
new sources of mischief are opened, different from 
those to which we have hitherto been exposed, — 
the period of wealth and luxury, in which the 
people are liable to be seduced from proper atten- 
tion to their public interests by the pursuit and 
enjoyment of riches. It has been said by a po- 
litical philosopher that while danger to a small 
republic comes from without, to a great republic 
it proceeds from within. We have nothing to 
fear from foreign power; we must turn the eye 
of vigilance upon ourselves. It was long ago 
foreseen that one result of the unexampled op- 
portunity for the acquisition of wealth, afforded 
by our resources and our laws, would be to divert 
the attention and the energies of the people from 



JULY 4, 1890. 11 

public affairs to the pursuit of private gain. We 
are beginning to realize this result. It is not 
a source of danger if it is met with a quickened 
sense of public duty on the part of the whole 
people. We cannot expect to enjoy the fruits 
of the prosperity which has made the United States 
the first nation in the world in aggregate wealth, 
and in the annual production of wealth, with- 
out the difficulties which seem inseparable from 
such a situation. We are reaping its benefits 
in every avenue of enterprise and philanthropy; 
in the march of industrial development, moving 
at a pace and upon a scale of which history 
affords no example, and in the boundless liberality 
of private munificence, manifested in the endow- 
ment of schools, libraries, museums, hospitals, and 
in every form which can increase the comfort 
and promote the progress of society. These are 
all proofs of public spirit, but to be effective for 
the security of popular governmeiit public spirit 
must be carried into the actual work of govern- 
ment by the whole body of the people. 

A natural tendency of the increase of wealth is 
to divert the highest talent from the service of 
the State to the fields of private enterprise. The 
result may be that as the government loses 
strength while power increases in private hands, 



12 ORATION. 

its integrity is exposed to the most insidious 
attack by corruption of the sources of the law. 
Against this peril we must be perpetually on 
guard. l!^o feature of our present situation calls 
more loudly for the public attention. But the 
remedy is in our own hands. The personal con- 
tribution by every citizen of his share of active 
effort -to secure the integrity and efficiency of 
the public service will put an effectual check to 
the operation of this malignant influence in our 
public affairs. The evil must be cured by making 
it impossible. It will shrink and disappear before 
the eye of public vigilance, and the resolute voice 
and the strong hand of public condemnation. 

It is natural that the people should be indif- 
ferent and inactive in proportion as they see less 
urgent need of interference in public affairs. They 
will always rise to a great emergency; but it is 
not safe to wait for an emergency. In times of 
peace and prosperity the edge of the public vigi- 
lance is dulled by a general sense of security. 
Under our government, our personal and political 
rights have come to be so much a matter of course 
that we are apt to overlook and to forget the 
duty and necessity of active and general participa- 
tion in public affairs, which is the vital force of 
popular government. The affairs of the people 



JULY4,1890. 13 

are our own affairs. There is no room for indif- 
ference or evasion of duty on the part of any 
citizen in a government of which every citizen is 
an essential part. The soul of our system is in 
the intelligent and conscientious exercise by the 
whole people of all their political rights. The in- 
tegrity of the whole depends upon the efficiency 
of every part, and this demands the watchful eye 
and the active hand of every member of the 
political body. 

It is a subject of frequent remark that those 
who ought to be our best citizens are most indif- 
ferent to the public interests. Doubtless, this is 
sometimes overstated. There are conspicuous ex- 
amples, which attract the public notice and fill too 
large a space in the public eye. It cannot be said 
with truth that the general character of public 
men or of the public service is declining. The 
picture is often painted by critics of our public 
affairs in darker colors than the true image ought 
to bear. It is natural to contrast the present with 
the past to our own disadvantage, but the past is 
always viewed through the illusion of time. In 
thinking of the great statesmen of former genera- 
tions we are liable to forget that all the public men 
of their times were not great men. But we cannot 
measure an age by the few colossal figures that 



14 ORATION. 

remain visible only because they towered above 
their contemporaries. If the great historic names 
which still survive among us have largely dis- 
appeared from the roll of our public men, this is 
no proof of a general decline in the public service. 
The resources of our country attract ability of the 
first order to the fields of industrial and com- 
mercial development. A public career is no longer, 
as once it was, the only path open to enterprise 
and ambition; and if the public service suffers, as 
undoubtedly it does to some extent, by the diver- 
sion of high talent into other channels of useful- 
ness, or from the reluctance of citizens best fitted 
for it by interest and training to accept public 
office, the benefit of their skill and genius is still 
secured to us in the development of our material 
resources, and the promotion of the general pros- 
perity. 

There is no surer way to attract the highest 
character and talent into public life than to 
awaken the general public sentiment to a sense 
of the responsibilities of citizenship, and the honor 
conferred in the bestowal of public position. 
Let it be understood that there is no more 
honorable service than the service of the State. 
The more it is sought by unworthy men, the 
more it is the duty of good citizens to put them- 



JULY4,1890. 15 

selves at the front. Let us not yield to the 
cowardly and unpatriotic sentiment expressed in 
the speech of Cato, "When vice prevails and im- 
pious men bear sway, the post of honor is a 
private station." The post of honor is always 
the post of duty, and the call of duty is loudest 
when the public service becomes debauched by 
men who could find no place there if public 
spirit watched and guarded the avenues to public 
position. 

The proper conduct of our government calls 
upon all citizens clothed with the right of suf- 
frage for the exercise of the voting power. It is 
not to be regarded as a privilege. It is a para- 
mount duty. There is a large body of our citi- 
zens who totally eliminate themselves from public 
affairs, and withhold their proper contribution 
from the general body of influence and opinion 
which ought to find expression in the conduct of 
government, by neglecting even the ballot. It is 
familiar to us that in every election the political 
parties have to beat their drums to summon the 
people to the polls. There is no more urgent 
need in our public affairs than to keep in the 
public mind the vital importance of the work of 
every man's hand in the political fabric. The 
Athenian republic punished its citizens who neg- 



16 ORATION. 

lected their public duties. But the law did not 
save Athens, and no State can find security in 
the penalties of the law. Popular government 
must rest upon the firmer foundation of public 
spirit and the willing and. active interest of its 
citizens. Its base must be as broad as the whole 
body of the people. The conduct of such a gov- 
ernment is no mechanical process. It cannot be 
made automatic. It calls for diligence and for 
sacrifice, and all devices for performing our politi- 
cal duties vicariously or without some cost of 
time and trouble are deceptive and vain. 

We offer various excuses for the neglect of 
public duty. We live in an active age; the calls 
of private business are exacting; we fancy that 
we can better afford to answer the call of a 
political ring for plunder by increased diligence 
in our offices and counting-rooms than by taking 
from our private affairs the necessary time to 
attend public meetings, serve on political com- 
mittees, or even to go to the primaries or the 
polls once or twice a year, to secure good gov- 
ernment. This is not good citizenship, and it is 
poor economy. Every hour withheld from public 
duty has to be paid for in the general ineffi- 
ciency and failure of government which sooner 
or later falls upon every one of us. The people, 



JULY4,1890. 17 

as a whole, are always in favor of good govern- 
ment. If the whole power of the people can be 
bronght to bear, they can have it and will have it. 
The most serious defects in the operation of our 
political system can be traced directly to the abdi- 
cation by citizens of their part in public affairs, and 
the absence from the polls of a substantial share 
of the ^ voting power. To this extent there is a 
failure of popular government, which is govern- 
ment by the whole people. It is no justification 
of this neglect of duty to say that the "political 
machine " is too powerful to be successfully at- 
tacked or overthrown. The power of the so- 
called " professional politician " is overrated. It is 
formidable only as seen from a distance, or with 
disordered vision. Political machinery, indeed, has 
been found inseparable from our political system; 
but the political " machine," in the modern offensive 
sense, exists only by sufferance, where it exists at 
all, and one of the most valuable results of its 
destruction will be that it can no longer be made 
the scapegoat for neglect of political duty by 
those who love private ease better than they love 
good government. 

The way to test the strength of the political 
"machine" is not by crying out against it, but by 
measuring forces with it, and putting it to proof. 



18 ORATION. 

The time has not yet come when the hand of dis- 
honest poUtical manipulation can prevail against 
the united strength of the people who seek good 
government with a resolute will to secure it. One 
blow of the popular arm destroyed the most 
powerful corrupt combination ever known to 
American politics, and the same thing can be 
done whenever the people are in the mood to do 
it. But if they wait until the chain is riveted 
so firmly that nothing but a great popular upheaval 
will break it, there is a new source of danger in 
the violence of the remedy. For political as for 
other ills, prevention is better than cure. The 
true remedy is in the public spirit and public vigi- 
lance which are always awake and active to 
guard against even the approach of danger. 

It is not enough merely to cast a ballot at the 
polls. The operation of our political machinery 
is such that attendance and participation in the 
primary meetings is of equal importance. Expe- 
rience has settled that the people will always be 
divided into parties on most questions of govern- 
ment, and the vote of political parties can only be 
made effective by concentration upon candidates 
selected in advance of the election. The caucus 
has been, and is, the subject of much complaint; 
and it ought to be, so far as it is mismanaged 



JULY4,1890. 19 

or perverted to defeat rather than secure its true 
object. The remedy for the perversion of the 
caucus, however, is not to complain of it, but to take 
charge of it. The caucus cannot be mismanaged to 
defeat the popular will if the popular will is that it 
shall not be mismanaged, and if that determination 
is carried into effect. But the caucus cannot be 
controlled at the fireside, in the club, or even in 
the columns of the newspapers. The work must 
be done by hand and upon the spot. To a large 
share of our citizens the jDrimary political meeting 
is as unaccustomed and unknown as the regions 
of space. From distaste, it may be, and disinclina- 
tion, they hold themselves wholly removed from 
the details of political work. But the point upon 
which the operation of our political system turns, — 
and it turns upon this point more than any other, 
— is not beneath the attention nor apart from the 
duty of any citizen. He may find the task of 
attendance inconvenient, and the associations not 
wholly to his liking; but this is a duty that 
cannot safely be neglected or left to other hands. 
It is idle to expect that temptation and oppor- 
tunity held out to unscrupulous self-interest will 
not be availed of for purposes of mischief. Good 
citizens, who are Avilling to make the sacrifice of 
time and inclination in the unselfish desire to 



20 ORATION. 

secure good government, are entitled to the coop- 
eration of tlieir neighbors of like disposition. It 
is to-day the most important and difficult problem 
of practical politics to secure a full and fair ex- 
pression of the whole constituency in the primary 
political meetings. It cannot be done by act of 
the Legislature, or by any device which does not 
include personal interest and personal effort. This, 
and this alone, will reform the caucus; and nothing 
will contribute more to the good government of 
our communities than the willing attendance and 
active participation of unselfish and public-spirited 
citizens, which will make the primary political 
meeting the safe and acceptable expression of the 
intelligence and character of the party which it 
represents. 

And here again it may be that this call to pub- 
lic duty is needed most by those of our fellow- 
citizens who are supposed to have the largest 
stake in good government, and who ought to have 
the deepest sense of public duty and the personal 
responsibility of the citizen. If it were permissible 
to classify our citizens, it would have to be said 
that the danger of popular apathy proceeds from 
above. The man who eats his bread in the 
sweat of his brow is not regardless or neglectful 
of his political rights or duties. Popular govern- 



JULY4,1890. 21 

ment must always depend for security upon the 
willing hearts and strong hands of the masses of 
the people. This, after all, is the propulsive force 
which carries on free government. But the obli- 
gations of citizenship are strongest upon those 
who, by training and opportunity, are best fitted 
for the practical discharge of its duties. The 
broad view and the sympathetic insight necessary 
to take in the spirit and the needs of popular gov- 
ernment ought to be among the fruits of culture, 
and culture ought to develop the best citizenship. 
We hear much of the " scholar in politics." He 
is needed and is welcome there; not as a critic, 
with airs of superiority, but as a helper in the 
work. The place of the scholar in politics is side 
by side with his fellow-citizens to whom the ad- 
vantages of culture have been denied. He can be 
of more service there than in proclaiming from his 
pedestal that the tone of public life is lowered, 
that public duty and the public service are beneath 
the attention of intelligence and self-respect, and 
that contact with public affairs will impair charac- 
ter and destroy reputation. IS^o influence has done 
more to create indifference on the part of the best 
citizens to their public duties, and inspire them with 
reluctance to mingle in public affairs, than these 
false notions, too much promoted in our times. IS^o 



22 ORATION. 

doctrine can be more pernicious, and none is 
farther from the truth. It is the offspring of the 
pohtical cynicism which takes the lowest view of 
pubUc duty; which does not comprehend the sig- 
nificance or feel the true spirit of popular govern- 
ment. There is nothing in the state of our public 
affairs, conceding all fair criticism, to warrant the 
existence, much less the propagation, of this false 
sentiment, the inevitable result of which must be 
to depress the tone of public life by debauching 
the public mind into disrespect for that which 
ought to be the object of the worthiest ambition 
and the highest sense of duty. 

If it were true that public life is so debased 
as to repel instead of attracting the highest 
character and talent, so much the more impera- 
tive would be the obligation upon all good citi- 
zens to come forward and redeem our affairs 
from this reproach by raising the fallen stand- 
ards of public spirit and public virtue. But it 
is not true. The same sort of criticism has ap- 
peared at every period of our history. It is in 
reality directed, not against the conduct of gov- 
ernment, but against popular government itself. 
Some of our censors do not find government by 
the people quite good enough for them. It is not 
everything it should be. !N^o government ever was 



JULY4,1890. 23 

or ever will be, until human nature is transformed. 
We take the defects with the merits of the sys- 
tem. Popular government is weakest in the details 
of administration ; its strength is in the security 
which it affords to the great principles which 
underlie personal rights and popular liberty. It is 
not, and is not designed to be, government by the 
rich, the wise, or even the virtuous, save so far as 
wealth, intelligence, and character can be brought 
to bear upon it through public opinion expressed 
in a majority of votes at the polls; and to make 
this the voice of character and intelligence is the 
highest duty of public virtue and public spirit. 
Popular government, in its practical operation, is 
government by the great body of average public 
opinion. It demands the concessions on which all 
government is based. It must be, and in the long 
run it will be, a fair reflection of the general sen- 
timent and character of the people. It will not, 
as a rule, rise above the general level nor fall 
below it, and its integrity is to be maintained by 
the public spirit which elevates and purifies the 
tone of public opinion in its operation upon pub- 
lic affairs. 

There is no place in our political system for 
the Pharisaism which looks with contempt or 
indifference upon public duty, and, " with mincing 



24 ORATION. 

gait and sneer of cold disdain," passes by the 
practical work of government; and especially is 
there no place for it in the education and train- 
ing of the youth, in whose generous impulses 
and high aspirations are the hope and security 
of our future. The highest end of education is 
not learning, but character. The noblest product 
of culture is a good citizen. Teach the young 
men to know their government and to believe 
in it. Fill their minds with the glorious mem- 
ories and examples of our history. Teach them 
the significance of the memorial tablets on the 
walls of yonder college hall, that love of letters 
may go hand in hand with love of country; and 
burn into their hearts with the fire of patriotism 
the lesson that there is no higher privilege and 
no nobler duty than that which belongs to an 
American citizen. 

I cannot forbear to remind you of the splen- 
did example of patriotism and public duty soon 
to be brought home to us. We are about 
to welcome to our hospitality the veteran 
soldiers of the war for the Union. We are ac- 
customed in these times to hesitate at the in- 
convenience involved in the discharge of the 
commonest public duties, in peace and safety, 
within sight of our own homes; here are a 



JULY4,1890. 25 

hundred thousand men who sealed their devotion 
to their country with wiUingness to die in her 
defence. They went at no call save that of her 
peril ; they returned with no decoration save 
honorable scars and the thanks of a grateful 
people. Their presence will be eloquent with the 
lesson which they taught their countrymen with 
bared breasts on the field of battle. We are told 
that we must forget the war. We do not recall 
it with any ungenerous or vindictive spirit; but 
patriotism is still a virtue, and loyalty to our 
country is not to be overlooked or forgotten. It 
is easy now, in the security of peace, to make 
light of the deeds and the sacrifices of the men 
who fought for the Union. " He jests at scars 
that never felt a wound." Direct the voice of 
reproach, if you will, against any who would make 
them the sport and subject of ambition, but the 
citizen soldiers of the republic are no "praetorian 
guard " and no band of mercenaries. There was 
a time when they were not held in light esteem. 
There are many here who remember the days 
when they looked at each other with blanched 
faces at the news of the latest defeat, and turned 
to the defenders of the country in the field as 
their only hope and succor. The debt of patriot- 
ism and gratitude is not outlawed, and the good 



26 ORATION. 

city of Boston will hang out all her banner's, 
and put on all her holiday attire to greet and 
welcome the Grand Army of the Republic. 

The government for which they fought will be 
maintained. The stream will not always run clear, 
but its source in the heart and conscience of the 
people will not be corrupted. The national char- 
acter has been tried by severe tests. It withstood 
the blighting influence of slavery, and it did not 
yield even to the white-heat of civil war. The 
people can be trusted. They are sound at the 
core. The great questions on which the integrity 
of government depends are safe in their hands. 
They have been right on these questions when 
all the statesmen were wrong. They will often 
move slowly, but they will move in the right 
way. Let us, then, look forward with hope and 
confidence, trusting in the God-fearing, law-abid- 
ing character of the American people, " rich in 
saving common-sense," grounded in love of jus- 
tice and order, and vital with public spirit, to 
keep secure the great trust committed to their 
hands. 



A LIST 



BOSTON MUNICIPAL ORATORS, 



By C. W. ERNST. 



BOSTON ORATORS. 

Appointed by the Municipal Authorities. 



For the Anniversary of the Boston Massacre^ March 5, 1770. 

Note. — The Fifth-of-March orations were published in handsome quarto editions, now 
very scarce; also, collected in book form, in 1785, and again in 1807. The oration of 1776 
was delivered in Watertown. 

1771. — Lovell, James. 

1772. — Warren, Joseph. 

1773. — Church, Benjajhn. 

1774. — Hancock, John. 
177.5. — Warren, Joseph. 

1776. — Thacher, Peter. 

1777. — HiCHBORN, Benjamin. 

1778. — Austin, Jonathan Williams. 

1779. — Tudor, William. 

1780. — Mason, Jonathan, Jun. 

1781. — Dawes, Thomas, Jun. 

1782. — MiNOT, George Richards. 

1783. — Welsh, Thomas. 



For the Anniversary of National Independence, July 4, 1776. 

Note. — A collected edition, or a full collection, of these orations has not been made. 
For the names of the orators, as officially printed on the title pages of the orations, see 
the Municipal Register of 1890. 

1783. — Warren, John.^ 

1784. — Highborn, Benjamin. 

1 Reprinted in Warren's Life. The orations of 1783 to 1786 were published in large 
quarto; the oration of 1787 appeared in octavo; the oration of 1788 was printed in small 
quarto ; all succeeding orations appeared in octavo, with the exceptions stated under 1863 
and 1876. 



30 APPENDIX. 

1785. — Gardiner, John. 

1786. — Austin, Jonathan Loring. 
1787. — Dawes, Thomas, Jun. 

1788. — Otis, Harrison Gray. 

1789. — Stillman, Samuel. 

1790. — Gray, Edward. 

1791. — Crafts, Thomas, Jun. 

1792. — Blake, Joseph, Jun.^ 

1793. — Adams, John Quincy. 

1794. — Phillips, John. 
179o. — Blake, George. 

1796. — Lathrop, John, Jun. 

1797. — Callender, John. 

1798. — Quincy, Josiah.^ 

1799. — Lowell, John, Jun.- 

1800. — Hall, Joseph. 

1801. — Paine, Charles. 

1802. — Emerson, William. 

1803. — Sullivan, William. 

1804. — Danforth, Thomas.- 

1805. — Button, Warren. 

1806. — Channing, Francis Dana." 

1807. — Thacher, Peter.--' 

1808. — Ritchie, Andrew, Jun.- 

1809. — Tudor, William, Jun.- 

1810. — Townsend, Alexander. 

1811. — Savage, James. ^ 



2 Passed to a second edition. 

3 Delivered another oration in 1826. Quincy's oration of 1798 was reprinted in Phila- 
delphia. 

*Not printed. 

"On February 26, 1811, Peter Thach^'s name was changed to Peter Oxenbridge 
Thacher. (List of Persons whose Names have been Changed in Massachusetts, 1780- 
1883, p. 23.) 



APPENDIX. 31 

1812. — Pollard, Benjajvun." 

1813. — LivERMORE, Edward St. Loe. 

1814. — Whit WELL, Benjamin. 

1815. — Shaw, Lemuel. . 

1816. — Sullivan, George.^ 

1817. — Channing, Edward Tyrrel. 

1818. — Gray, Francis Galley. 

1819. — Dexter, Franklin. 

1820. — Lyman, Theodore, Jun. 

1821. — LoRiNG, Charles Greely.^ 

1822. — Gray, John Chipman. 

1823. — Curtis, Charles Pelham. 

1824. — Bassett, Francis. 
1825. — Sprague, Charles.* 

1826. QuiNCY, JoSIAH.' 

1827. — Mason, William Powell. 

1828. — Sumner, Bradford. 

1829. — Austin, James Trecothick. 

1830. — Everett, Alexander Hill. 

1831. — Palfrey, John Gorham. 

1832. — Quincy, Josiah, Jun. 

1833. — Prescott, Edward Goldsborough. 

1834. — Fay, Richard Sullivan. 

1835. — HiLLARD, George Stillman. 

1836. — Kinsman, Henry Willis. 

1837. — Chapman, Jonathan. 

1838. — WiNSLOW, Hubbard. "The Means of the Per- 

petuity and Prosperity of our Republic." 

1839. — Austin, Ivers James. 

1840. — Power, Thomas. 

^ Three editions. Reprinted also in his Life and L«tterB. 
' Reprinted in his Municipal History of Boston. 



32 APPENDIX. 

1841. — Curtis, George Ticknor. "The True Uses of 

Americaa Revolutionary History." " 

1842. — Mann, Horace.' 

1843. — Adams, Charles Francis. 

1844. — Chandler, Peleg Whitman. "The Morals of 

Freedom." 

1845. — Sumner, Charles.^" " The True Grandeur of 

Nations." 

1846. — Webster, Fletcher. 

1847. — Cary, Thomas Greaves. 

1848. — Giles, Joel. " Practical Liberty." 

1849. — Greenough, William Whitwell. "The Con- 

quering Republic." 

1850. — Whipple, Edwin Percy." "Washington and 

the Principles of the Revolution." 

1851. — Russell, Charles Theodore. 

1852. — King, Thomas Starr." 

1853. — Bigelow, Timothy. ^^ 

1854. — Stone, Andrew Leete.^ 

1855. — Miner, Alonzo Ames. 

1856. — Parker, Edward Griffin. " The Lesson of 

'76 to the Men of '56." 
1857. — Alger, William Rounseville.^^ "The Genius 
and Posture of America." 

8 Delivered another oration in 1862. 

9 There are four editions. 

M Passed through three editions in Boston and one in London, and was answered in a 
pamphlet, Remarks upon an Oration delivered by Charles Sumner . . . , July 4th, 
1845. By a Citizen of Boston (said to be George Putnam, D.D.). 

11 There is a second edition. (Boston : Ticknor, Reed, and Fields. 1850. 49 pp. 12».) 

12 This and a number of the succeeding orations, up to 1S61, contain the speeches, toasts, 
etc., of the City dinner usually given in Faneuil Hall on the Fourth of July. 

13 As many as four editions were piinted iu 1857. (Boston: Office Boston Daily Bee. 
60 pp.) Not until November 22, 1864, was Mr. Alger asked by the City to furnish a 
copy for publication. He granted the request, and the first official edition (J. E. Farwell 
& Co., 1864. 53 pp.) was then issued. It lacks the interesting preface and appendix of 
the early editions. 



APPENDIX. 33 

1858. — Holmes, John Somers.^ 

1859. — Sumner, George." 

1860. — Everett, Edward. 
1861. — Parsons, Theophilus. 

1862. — Curtis, George Ticknor. 

1863. — Holmes, Oliver Wendell.'^ 

1864. — Russell, Thomas. 

1865. — Manning, Jacob Merrill. " Peace uuder Lib- 

erty." 

1866. — LoTHROP, Samuel Kirkland, 

1867. — Hep WORTH, George Hughes. 

1868. —Eliot, Samuel. "The Functions of a City." 

1869. — Morton, Ellis Wesley. 

1870. — Everett, William. 

1871. — Sargent, Horace Binney. 

1872. — Adams, Charles Francis, Jun. 

1873. — Ware, John Fothergill Waterhouse. 

1874. — Frothingham, Richard. 

1875. — Clarke, James Freeman. 

1876. — WiNTHROP, Robert Charles. ^^ 

1877. — Warren, William Wlrt. 

1878. — Healy, .Joseph. 

1879. — Lodge, Henry Cabot. 

1880. — Smith, Robert Dickson. ^^ 

"There is another editlOD. (Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, 1882. 46 pp.) It omits 
the dinner at Faneuil Hall, the correspondence and events of the celebration. 

15 There is a preliminary edition of twelve copies. (J. E. Farwell & Co., 1863. CT), 
71 pp.) It is " the first draft of the author's address, turned into larger, legible type, for the 
sole purpose of rendering easier its public delivery." It was done by " the liberality of the 
City Authorities," and is, typographically, the handsomest of these orations. This resulted 
in the large-paper 75-page edition, printed from the same type as the 71-page edition, but 
modified by the author. It is printed " by order of the Common Council." The regular 
edition is in 60 pp., octavo size. 

1*^ There is a large-paper edition of fifty copies printed from this type, and also an 
edition from the press of John Wilson & Son, 1876. 55 pp. 8". 

"On Samuel Adams, a statue of whom, by Miss Anne Whitney, had just been com- 
pleted for the City. A photograph of the statue is added. 



Idfti 



34 APPENDIX. 

1881. — Warren, George Washington. ''Our Republic 

— Liberty and Equality Founded on Law." 

1882. — Long, John Davis. 

1883. — Carpenter, Henry Bernard. " American Char- 

acter and Influence." 

1884. — Shepard, Harvey Newton. 

1885. — Gargan, Thomas John. 

1886. — Williams, George Frederick. 

1887. — Fitzgerald, John Edward. 

1888. — DiLLAWAY, William Edward Lovell. 

1889. — Swift, John Lindsay. ^^ " The American Citi- 

zen." 

1890. — PiLLSBURY, Albert Enoch. " Public Spirit." 

1* Contains a bibliography of Boston Fourth of July orations, from 1783 to 1889, inclusive, 
compiled by Lindsay Swift, of the Boston Public Library. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




